Marionette (a Sasori X Shikamaru story)
by D.M.Bradley-Whittaker
Summary: Out of pain comes love. This Puppetmaster and Shadowmaster learn the actually meaning of love after a fight. Please read and review. May have a little OOC. (Sasori X Shikamaru) Rated T for suggested themes.


A fight for control; an arguement over dominance; a battle between a Puppetmaster and it's Marionette. Whose feet will make him raise, whose knees will make him fall?

Blank stares were fixed across the room. Intensely fixed on one another, they were waiting on which one was going to be the bigger man, which one was going to be the first to make a move.

Chakra laces outstretched from Sasori's fingers attacted to a deadly weapon, ready to be used with the swiftest movement. Shadows outspread from Shikamaru's main obscuration, acting as a lethal apparatus to be used at one's will and command. Not one of them was going to give up this fight; it had meant too much to them. This was a fight, not to the death, but to the raisement of a white flag. No matter how much charkra this battle was going to use, they were determined to put their all into it. It wouldn't mean anything if they didn't do so.

The setting sun shone through the windows of the bottom floor of this house. It was almost as big as where the preliminaries took place. Longer shadows were casted upon the objects in the place as the sun sunk lower into the horizon.

Who was going to make the first move?

Sasori looked at the man across the field. Noticing the maturaity in his eyes, Sasori admired the way Shikamaru stood; strong and proud; the look in his eye; definant, determind and one other thing...

...lost and forgotton.

Deep down, no matter how hard he tried to hide it behind his uncaring, annoyed attitude and eyes, Sasori could see that Shikamaru was hurting inside, but he refuses to show it. Shikamaru reminded him of someone all-too-familier.

Although, Sasori had to admit, even if it was only to himself, that Shikamaru looked hot in his Jonin vest. Sasori could faintly see the pack of cigarette peaking out from his left beast pocket of the green vest, along with a lighter. It was a symbol; something to keep him remembering someone very close to him - his sensei, Asuma Sarutobi.

This man that stood before Sasori had a deeper understanding of hurt, pain and lost, but the only one who was even close to that kind of exposure was Sasori himself. Shikamaru had lost his sensei, and in mourning had carried Asuma's habit of smoking; he had lost his father, and carried all of Shikaku's looks, knowledge, and attitude; Shikamaru had also lost his mother and always wore her hoop earrings. Even though he thought that she was bothersome, she was still an inportant part of his life and he never wanted to forget her; he never wanted to forget any of them because they were all special to him. He bares the secrets of the Nara clan alone and he might be the only one left in his clan. Sasori knew how that all was. He had been through the same difficulties as Shikamaru.

Sasori looked out of the windows, and figured that he should start this fight. Sasori twitched his fingers, awakening his puppet, demanding it's presence. Sasori never even finished getting out his puppet before he felt Shikamaru's shadows grab a hold of him. Shikamaru just stood there, as calm as ever, but the Puppetmaster could see that he was draining his power as he kept the redhead in the same position. If the brunette kept this up, he would be completely drain, and would have to wave the white flag.

The Shadowmaster put his fingers together and closed his eyes, and Sasori was forced to do the same. _'This is going to_ _be interesting,'_ Sasori thought. _'When Shikamaru started to think, who knows what brilliant plan he came up with. There's no way to guess his next move, sometimes.'_ If Shikamaru's oppenent knew him like Sasori did, maybe it wouldn't be too hard to follow his train of thought.

After a little while, the redhead opened his eyes to see the brunette doing the same. There was that look in his eye. Nara had a plan.

The war raged on. Full force. It was all or nothing.

Shadowmaster VS. Puppetmaster.

**_"Clank. Crash. Boom."_ **The two men were panting. Nara had used the Shadow-Neck Binding Technique to lay most of the hits on Sasori, while the Red Sand ninja stood there, held in the Shadow Possesion Justu. The Hidden Leaf ninja used up too much of his charka and Sasori was shocked at the powerful hits of charka he had just recieved. If they went on like this, Sasori would surely lose but seeing as that Shikamaru is losing a great amount of charka, he might win.

As if on cue, The shadows retreated and Nara was just about drained of all the energy he had.

Desperatly, Shikamaru pulled his last hope of salvation out of his holster. Asuma Sensei's Chakra Knives.

Sasori could barely stand but he gave in his energy to his greatest weapon. His puppets. His puppets were the only thing that kept him close to the ones that he had loved; his mother, his father, and his grandmother, Chiyo. It was the only way that he truly knew that he would always be with his loved ones. He had even made a puppet of himself, so that even after this body of his decreased, he would still be with his memorable ones. But, for this battle, he didn't use such prized possesions. He used his minor and old puppets, for he knew that they would surely be destoryed.

Now it was Shikamaru's Chakra Engulfed Trench Knives against Sasori's Wooden Puppets.

Nara raged head-first into the incoming swarm of puppet flying at him. _**"Bang!" **_

As Sasori pulled the strings, the fist-pounding Nara supplied him with less strings to pull. _**"B****oom!"** _

Out of breath and out of energy, the two men sank to their knees in front of another and lean on each other for support. Blood and broken, wooden parts were scattered all around them. They could feel each other's hot pants in the other's neck and ears. They were hurting and tired.

"How troublesome. Why do we hurt each other so badly?" Shikamaru said once he got his breath back.

There was a short silence. "Because it's the only thing we know how to do, anymore. We'd been hurt from our loved and trusted ones so now we hurt the one we love and trust." Sasori whispered in his ear as if it was a secret.

"Then let's find out what love really is for ourselves." The Shadowmaster kissed his lover, hungerily, and the Puppetmaster had kissed him back just as eagerly.

That day, no one had won dominance over the other. Over the course of that night, while they touched and tasted, they found that dominance should be equal among each other. Love was a mixture of love and pain but with their lover by their side, they learned what strings to pull. They were each other's marionette.

* * *

A/N: I thought that this would be an interesting couple. I thought about pairing any of these two up with Kankuro but I didn't think it would work as well.

I know that the characters may be OOC and I am truly sorry for that. Please correct me when you review. Please leave a comment. Just so I know that someone is reading my material. Thanks!


End file.
